Bungee cords are extremely common and used in a variety of ways. The most simple and common bungee cord terminus is a stiff wire hook which connects with a coiled wire basket. The bungee cord is fed into the basket, bent back on itself, and the loop so formed is secured by a crimped hog ring. The position of one form of terminus known in the art is adjustable along the length of the cord; in other forms the position is fixed. A variety of still other forms are known to provide a variety of features to suit different applications. Many have open hooks; others rely on thin plastic or metal closures; some are plastic, and some are metal.
In the prior art, there are several ways utilized to anchor a bungee cord in a hook or other terminus, one of which is to tie the end of the bungee cord in a knot and have it engage a previously formed terminus, or have it molded into a terminus. However, this results in a very bulky terminus which gets in the way of anchoring the bungee cord in a variety of situations.
Another known method is to simply loop the end of the bungee cord through an eye formed in a proximal end of a hook, cinch it with a hog ring, and cast it into a molded terminus base. To make the terminus smaller, it has been known to use crimps or hog rings cast within a molded terminus. However, bungee cords become thinner as they are stretched by additional loading, and can become sufficiently thin so as to slip out of a crimp or hog ring.